Systems and methods for cooperative communication using interfering signals

ABSTRACT

An electronic device discussed herein may include radio frequency communication circuitry for communication on a radio frequency network according to a communication configuration, a processor, and memory. The memory may store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform operations including receiving, a first muting configuration indicating when the radio frequency communication circuitry is to communicate using a first type of communication on a first frequency band and when the radio frequency communication circuitry is to communicate using a second type of communication on a second frequency band, where the first frequency band may overlap with the second frequency band. The memory may store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform operations including transmitting or receiving a data packet using the radio frequency communication circuitry according to the communication configuration.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 62/931,534, filed Nov. 6, 2019, and entitled,“PROTECTION OF UWB SERVICES COLOCATED WITH A LICENSED NETWORK,” and U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/948,072, filed Dec. 13, 2019, andentitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR COOPERATIVE COMMUNICATION USINGINTERFERING SIGNALS,” both of which are incorporated herein by referencein their entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates generally to electronic devices, and moreparticularly, to electronic devices that utilize radio frequencysignals, transmitters, and receivers for wireless communication.

This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects ofart that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure,which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed tobe helpful in providing the reader with background information tofacilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the presentdisclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statementsare to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

Transmitters and/or receivers are commonly included in variouselectronic devices, and more particularly, portable electroniccommunication devices, such as phones (e.g., mobile and cellular phones,cordless phones, personal assistance devices), computers (e.g., laptops,tablet computers), internet connectivity routers (e.g., WI-FI® routersor modems), radios, televisions, or any of various other stationary orhandheld devices, to enable communication. In some electronic devices, atransmitter and a receiver are combined to form a transceiver. For easeof discussion, transceivers are discussed in the present disclosure, butit should be understood that the following descriptions may applyindividually to receivers and/or transmitters (e.g., that may not beincluded in a transceiver).

Transceivers may transmit and/or receive wireless signals by way of anantenna coupled to the transceiver. Specifically, a wireless transceivermay wirelessly communicate voice and/or data signals over a networkchannel or other medium (e.g., air) to and from one or more externalwireless devices. Wireless data communication may involve transmittingand/or receiving carrier signals (e.g., radio frequency (RF) signals)indicative of the data. By way of example, an electronic device mayinclude a transceiver to transmit and/or receive the RF signals over oneor more frequencies of a wireless network (e.g., an RF network).Transceivers may be installed on a printed circuit board (PCB) withsignal processing circuitry associated with processing a carrier signalbefore and/or after wireless transmission into the air. The transceivermay include a variety of circuitry, including, for example, processingcircuitry to modulate a data signal onto a carrier wave to generate anRF signal. The transmitter of the transceiver may also include powercircuitry, such as a power amplifier (e.g., amplifying circuitry), toincrease a power level of the RF signal so that the transmitter mayeffectively transmit the RF signal into the air via an antenna. Someelectronic devices may have circuitry of the transceiver disposed ondifferent, stacked PCBs.

The information to be transmitted is typically modulated onto the RFsignal prior to wireless transmission. In other words, the informationto be transmitted is typically embedded in an envelope of a carriersignal that has a frequency in the RF range. The envelope is typicallyreferred to as the baseband signal. To embed or extract the informationin or from the envelope of the carrier signal, processing may beperformed on a received RF signal according to transmission parameters.For example, an electronic device (e.g., user equipment) may demodulatethe RF signal (e.g., to remove the carrier signal) to recover theembedded information in the envelope based at least in part on afrequency of the received RF signal.

Furthermore, a transceiver may enable an electronic device tocommunicate with an RF network provider via a base station of thewireless network. The transmission parameters and other settings, suchas information used to authenticate an electronic device to the RFnetwork, may be provided to the electronic device by way of a subscriberidentification module (SIM) card. The RF network may be a wirelessnetwork, such as WI-FI®, that facilitates the wireless transmission ofinformation between the electronic device and the RF network provider.The RF network may communicate with the electronic device usinginformation associated with the SIM card and may sometimes perform thiscommunication via a frequency band that overlaps with a frequency bandused for device-to-device communications. These device-to-devicecommunications may be exchanged locally and/or over an unregisterednetwork (e.g., a wireless network that an electronic device does notregister to before communication) rather than via communication with theRF network. In some cases, the device-to-device communications may usean ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency band and/or UWB communicationsassociated with UWB services accessible by the electronic device.

For example, a first electronic device may wirelessly transmit data toan RF network (e.g., a fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR)) using afirst frequency band and a second electronic device may transmit adevice-to-device communication to a third electronic device using asecond frequency band. In some cases, the first frequency band at leastpartially interferes with the second frequency band (e.g., overlappingin eligible transmission frequencies of the frequencies bands). Forexample, the first frequency band may correspond to an NR frequency bandand the second frequency band may correspond to a UWB frequency band. Itis noted that for purposes of this disclosure, the NR frequency band maycorrespond to frequencies between 7 gigahertz (GHz) and 25 GHz (e.g.,less than 25 GHz, greater than 7 GHz, between 7.125 GHz and 24.25 GHz)and/or the ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency band may correspondfrequencies between 3 GHz and 11 GHz (e.g., between 3.1 GHz and 10.6GHz, between 6.24 GHz and 8.736 GHz, between 3.55 GHz and 3.7 GHz). Assuch, when the RF network and the first electronic device communicate onthe first frequency band while the second electronic device and thethird electronic device communicate on the second frequency band, eitheror both communications may be compromised and/or experience interferencedue to the using first frequency band overlapping with the secondfrequency band.

SUMMARY

A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set forth below. Itshould be understood that these aspects are presented merely to providethe reader with a brief summary of these certain embodiments and thatthese aspects are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure.Indeed, this disclosure may encompass a variety of aspects that may notbe set forth below.

To avoid or reduce interference between a first electronic devicecommunicating with a radio frequency network (e.g., a fifth generation(5G) network, a New Radio (NR) network, a fourth generation (4G)network, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network), a third generation (3G)network) on a first frequency band and a second electronic devicecommunicating with a third electronic device on a second frequency band(e.g., an ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency band), systems, devices, andmethods are disclosed that cause a base station to temporarily mutecommunications on the radio frequency network to permit a duration oftime during which the second and third electronic devices maycommunicate on the second frequency band. The base station may generatemuting configurations that define muting durations (e.g., period ordurations of time during which communications on using the firstfrequency band are stopped or paused to permit communications using thesecond frequency band). In this way, a muting configuration may definewhen radio frequency communication circuitry (RF circuitry) of the firstelectronic device is to communicate using a first type of communication(e.g., on the first frequency band) and when the RF circuitry of thesecond electronic device and/or the third electronic device is tocommunicate using a second type of communication (e.g., on the secondfrequency band). The first electronic device, the second electronicdevice, the third electronic device, and/or the base station may eachoperate in accordance with the muting durations to coordinate otherwiseinterfering communications (e.g., communications transmitted via atleast partially overlapping frequency bands).

Various refinements of the features noted above may exist in relation tovarious aspects of the present disclosure. Further features may also beincorporated in these various aspects as well. These refinements andadditional features may exist individually or in any combination. Forinstance, various features discussed below in relation to one or more ofthe illustrated embodiments may be incorporated into any of theabove-described aspects of the present disclosure alone or in anycombination. The brief summary presented above is intended tofamiliarize the reader with certain aspects and contexts of embodimentsof the present disclosure without limitation to the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various aspects of this disclosure may be better understood upon readingthe following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic device including atransceiver, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a notebook computer representing a firstembodiment of the electronic device of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is a front view of a handheld device representing a secondembodiment of the electronic device of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 4 is a front view of another handheld device representing a thirdembodiment of the electronic device of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 5 is a front view of a desktop computer representing a fourthembodiment of the electronic device of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 6 is a front view and side view of a wearable electronic devicerepresenting a fifth embodiment of the electronic device of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a base station communicating with theelectronic device of FIG. 1 , and of additional electronic devicecommunicating with another electronic device, in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 8 is an illustrative diagram of multiple base stations, includingthe base station of FIG. 7 , communicating with multiple electronicdevices, including the electronic device of FIG. 1 , in accordance withan embodiment;

FIG. 9 is an example communication cycle diagram depicting transmission(TX) durations and receive (RX) durations arranged in a periodic patternused to manage device-to-device communication between the electronicdevices of FIG. 8 , in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 10 is an illustrative diagram of the multiple base stationscommunicating with the multiple electronic devices, including theelectronic device of FIG. 1 , where the multiple base stations and themultiple electronic devices are operated according to a staticcommunication configuration during a muting duration, in accordance withan embodiment;

FIG. 11 is an example communication cycle diagram depicting a staticcommunication configuration that includes muting durations, uplinkdurations, downlink durations, and special durations (e.g., combineduplink duration and downlink duration) arranged in a periodic patternused to manage communication exchange between the electronic device ofFIG. 1 , the additional electronic devices of FIG. 7 , and the basestation of FIG. 7 , in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating a method for operating theelectronic device of FIG. 1 as a first electronic device according tothe communication configuration of FIG. 11 to communicate with theadditional electronic devices of FIG. 7 and/or the base station of FIG.7 , in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating a method for operating the basestation of FIG. 7 according to the communication configuration of FIG.11 to communicate with the electronic device of FIG. 1 , in accordancewith an embodiment;

FIG. 14 is an illustrative diagram of multiple base stationscommunicating with multiple electronic devices, including the electronicdevice of FIG. 1 , the additional electronic devices of FIG. 7 , and thebase station of FIG. 7 , where the multiple base stations and themultiple electronic devices are operated according to a dynamiccommunication configuration during a muting duration, in accordance withan embodiment;

FIG. 15 is an example communication cycle diagram depicting a firstcommunication configuration generated based on a first mutingconfiguration, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 16 is an example communication cycle diagram depicting a secondcommunication configuration generated by adjusting the firstcommunication configuration based on a second muting configuration thatincreased a duration of time used for the muting durations, inaccordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating a method for operating the basestation of FIG. 7 to generate the second communication configuration ofFIG. 15 , in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 18 is an illustrative diagram of multiple base stationscommunicating with multiple electronic devices according to a firstcommunication configuration or a second communication configuration at afirst time before application of a device-specific muting configurationat a second time, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 19 is an illustrative diagram of the multiple base stations of FIG.18 communicating with the multiple electronic devices of FIG. 18 , wherea subset of base stations and electronic devices communicate accordingto a third communication configuration generated using a device-specificmuting configuration at the second time, in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 20 is an example communication cycle diagram depicting the firstcommunication configuration corresponding to a first electronic deviceof FIG. 18 , and the second communication configuration corresponding toa second electronic device of FIG. 18 , in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 21 is an example communication cycle diagram depicting the firstcommunication configuration of FIG. 20 after an adjustment to the secondcommunication configuration without an adjustment being made to thefirst communication configuration, where the adjusted secondcommunication configuration corresponds to the third communicationconfiguration of FIG. 19 , in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 22 is a flow chart illustrating a method for operating the basestation of FIG. 7 to generate a first muting configuration correspondingto some electronic devices of FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 7 and to generate asecond muting configuration corresponding to other of the electronicdevices of FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 7 , in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 23 is an example communication cycle diagram depicting a commoncommunication configuration, the first communication configuration ofFIG. 21 , and the second communication configuration of FIG. 21 , andthe third communication configuration of FIG. 22 , in accordance with anembodiment; and

FIG. 24 is a flow chart illustrating a method for operating a basestation of FIG. 8 to generate a common muting configurationcorresponding to default information and to generate a first mutingconfiguration corresponding to the first electronic device of FIG. 18corresponding to a traffic profile and/or actual electronic deviceinformation, in accordance with an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

When introducing elements of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean thatthere are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,”“including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean thatthere may be additional elements other than the listed elements.Additionally, it should be understood that references to “oneembodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present disclosure are notintended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additionalembodiments that also incorporate the recited features.

Various processes may be used to generate muting configurations. Theprocesses may apply to a variety of electronic devices. For example, afirst electronic device may wirelessly transmit data to an RF network(e.g., a fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR)) using a first frequencyband and a second electronic device may transmit a device-to-devicecommunication to a third electronic device using a second frequencyband. The electronic devices may communicate according to communicationconfigurations and a base station of the RF network may communicateaccording to a communication configuration generated based at least inpart on a muting configuration. The base station may use mutingdurations defined by the muting configuration to provide the secondelectronic device and the third electronic device a period of timeduring which to communicate using the second frequency band. It is notedthat in some cases the first electronic device may communicate using thesecond frequency band with the second electronic device and/or with thethird electronic device. These processes bring certain advantages tooperation, as is described herein. With the foregoing in mind, a generaldescription of suitable electronic devices that may include such atransceiver is provided below.

Turning first to FIG. 1 , an electronic device 10 according to anembodiment of the present disclosure may include, among other things,one or more of processor(s) 12, memory 14, nonvolatile storage 16, adisplay 18, input structures 22, an input/output (I/O) interface 24, anetwork interface 26, a transceiver 28, and a power source 30. Thevarious functional blocks shown in FIG. 1 may include hardware elements(including circuitry), software elements (including computer code storedon a computer-readable medium) or a combination of both hardware andsoftware elements. Furthermore, a combination of elements may beincluded in tangible, non-transitory, and machine-readable medium thatinclude machine-readable instructions. The instructions may be executedby the processor 12 and may cause the processor 12 to perform operationsas described herein. The one or more processors 12 may include one ormore baseband processors that manage wireless communication and/or radiofunctions, and, in some embodiments, may at least partially be disposedin the network interface 26, the transceiver 28, and/or one or moremodems. It should be noted that FIG. 1 is merely one example of aparticular embodiment and is intended to illustrate the types ofelements that may be present in the electronic device 10.

By way of example, the electronic device 10 may represent a blockdiagram of the notebook computer depicted in FIG. 2 , the handhelddevice depicted in FIG. 3 , the handheld device depicted in FIG. 4 , thedesktop computer depicted in FIG. 5 , the wearable electronic devicedepicted in FIG. 6 , or similar devices. It should be noted that theprocessor 12 and other related items in FIG. 1 may be generally referredto herein as “data processing circuitry.” Such data processing circuitrymay be embodied wholly or in part as software, firmware, hardware, orany combination thereof. Furthermore, the data processing circuitry maybe a single contained processing module or may be incorporated wholly orpartially within any of the other elements within the electronic device10.

In the electronic device 10 of FIG. 1 , the processor 12 may operablycouple with the memory 14 and the nonvolatile storage 16 to performvarious algorithms. Such programs or instructions executed by theprocessor 12 may be stored in any suitable article of manufacture thatincludes one or more tangible, computer-readable media at leastcollectively storing the instructions or processes, such as the memory14 and the nonvolatile storage 16. The memory 14 and the nonvolatilestorage 16 may include any suitable articles of manufacture for storingdata and executable instructions, such as random-access memory,read-only memory, rewritable flash memory, hard drives, and opticaldiscs. Also, programs (e.g., an operating system) encoded on such acomputer program product may also include instructions executable by theprocessor 12 to enable the electronic device 10 to provide variousfunctionalities.

In certain embodiments, the display 18 may be a liquid crystal display(LCD), which may facilitate users to view images generated on theelectronic device 10. In some embodiments, the display 18 may include atouch screen, which may facilitate user interaction with a userinterface of the electronic device 10. Furthermore, it should beappreciated that, in some embodiments, the display 18 may include one ormore organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, or some combinationof LCD panels and OLED panels.

The input structures 22 of the electronic device 10 may enable a user tointeract with the electronic device 10 (e.g., pressing a button toincrease or decrease a volume level). The I/O interface 24 may enablethe electronic device 10 to interface with various other electronicdevices, as may the network interface 26. The network interface 26 mayinclude, for example, one or more interfaces for a personal area network(PAN), such as a BLUETOOTH® network, for a local area network (LAN) orwireless local area network (WLAN), such as an 802.11x WI-FI® network,and/or for a wide area network (WAN), such as a 3^(rd) generation (3G)cellular network, 4^(th) generation (4G) cellular network, long termevolution (LTE®) cellular network, long term evolution license assistedaccess (LTE-LAA) cellular network, 5^(th) generation (5G) cellularnetwork, or New Radio (NR) cellular network. The network interface 26may also include one or more interfaces for, for example, broadbandfixed wireless access networks (e.g., WIMAX®), mobile broadband Wirelessnetworks (mobile WIMAX®), asynchronous digital subscriber lines (e.g.,ADSL, VDSL), digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T®) network andits extension DVB Handheld (DVB-H®) network, ultra-wideband (UWB)network, alternating current (AC) power lines, and so forth. Asdiscussed above, the network interface 26 may include one or moreprocessors 12, such as one or more baseband processors, that managewireless communication and/or radio functions.

In some embodiments, the electronic device 10 communicates over theaforementioned wireless networks (e.g., WI-FI®, WIMAX®, mobile WIMAX®,4G, LTE®, 5G, and so forth) using the transceiver 28. The transceiver 28may include circuitry useful in both wirelessly receiving and wirelesslytransmitting signals (e.g., data signals, wireless data signals,wireless carrier signals, RF signals), such as a transmitter and/or areceiver. Indeed, in some embodiments, the transceiver 28 may include atransmitter and a receiver combined into a single unit, or, in otherembodiments, the transceiver 28 may include a transmitter separate froma receiver. The transceiver 28 may transmit and receive RF signals tosupport voice and/or data communication in wireless applications suchas, for example, PAN networks (e.g., BLUETOOTH®), WLAN networks (e.g.,802.11x WI-FI®, WAN networks (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G, NR, and LTE® and LTE-LAAcellular networks), WIMAX® networks, mobile WIMAX® networks, ADSL andVDSL networks, DVB-T® and DVB-H® networks, UWB networks, and so forth.As further illustrated, the electronic device 10 may include the powersource 30. The power source 30 may include any suitable source of power,such as a rechargeable lithium polymer (Li-poly) battery and/or analternating current (AC) power converter.

In certain embodiments, the electronic device 10 may take the form of acomputer, a portable electronic device, a wearable electronic device, orother type of electronic device. Such computers may be generallyportable (such as laptop, notebook, and tablet computers) and/or thosethat are generally used in one place (such as conventional desktopcomputers, workstations and/or servers). In certain embodiments, theelectronic device 10 in the form of a computer may be a model of aMacBook®, MacBook® Pro, MacBook Air®, iMac®, Mac® mini, or Mac Pro®available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. By way of example, theelectronic device 10, taking the form of a notebook computer 10A, isillustrated in FIG. 2 in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The notebook computer 10A may include a housing or theenclosure 36, the display 18, the input structures 22, and portsassociated with the I/O interface 24. In one embodiment, the inputstructures 22 (such as a keyboard and/or touchpad) may enableinteraction with the notebook computer 10A, such as starting,controlling, or operating a graphical user interface (GUI) and/orapplications running on the notebook computer 10A. For example, akeyboard and/or touchpad may facilitate user interaction with a userinterface, GUI, and/or application interface displayed on display 18.

FIG. 3 depicts a front view of a handheld device 10B, which representsone embodiment of the electronic device 10. The handheld device 10B mayrepresent, for example, a portable phone, a media player, a personaldata organizer, a handheld game platform, or any combination of suchdevices. By way of example, the handheld device 10B may be a model of aniPod® or iPhone® available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Thehandheld device 10B may include the enclosure 36 to protect interiorelements from physical damage and to shield them from electromagneticinterference. The enclosure 36 may surround the display 18. The I/Ointerface 24 may open through the enclosure 36 and may include, forexample, an I/O port for a hard wired connection for charging and/orcontent manipulation using a standard connector and protocol, such asthe Lightning connector provided by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., auniversal serial bus (USB), or other similar connector and protocol.

The input structures 22, in combination with the display 18, may enableuser control of the handheld device 10B. For example, the inputstructures 22 may activate or deactivate the handheld device 10B,navigate a user interface to a home screen, present a user-editableapplication screen, and/or activate a voice-recognition feature of thehandheld device 10B. Other of the input structures 22 may provide volumecontrol, or may toggle between vibrate and ring modes. The inputstructures 22 may also include a microphone to obtain a user's voice forvarious voice-related features, and a speaker to enable audio playback.The input structures 22 may also include a headphone input to enableinput from external speakers and/or headphones.

FIG. 4 depicts a front view of another handheld device 10C, whichrepresents another embodiment of the electronic device 10. The handhelddevice 10C may represent, for example, a tablet computer, or one ofvarious portable computing devices. By way of example, the handhelddevice 10C may be a tablet-sized embodiment of the electronic device 10,which may be, for example, a model of an iPad® available from Apple Inc.of Cupertino, Calif.

Turning to FIG. 5 , a computer 10D may represent another embodiment ofthe electronic device 10 of FIG. 1 . The computer 10D may be anycomputer, such as a desktop computer, a server, or a notebook computer,but may also be a standalone media player or video gaming machine. Byway of example, the computer 10D may be an iMac®, a MacBook®, or othersimilar device by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. It should be notedthat the computer 10D may also represent a personal computer (PC) byanother manufacturer. The enclosure 36 may protect and enclose internalelements of the computer 10D, such as the display 18. In certainembodiments, a user of the computer 10D may interact with the computer10D using various peripheral input devices, such as keyboard 22A ormouse 22B (e.g., input structures 22), which may operatively couple tothe computer 10D.

Similarly, FIG. 6 depicts a wearable electronic device 10E representinganother embodiment of the electronic device 10 of FIG. 1 . By way ofexample, the wearable electronic device 10E, which may include awristband 43, may be an Apple Watch® by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.However, in other embodiments, the wearable electronic device 10E mayinclude any wearable electronic device such as, a wearable exercisemonitoring device (e.g., pedometer, accelerometer, heart rate monitor),or other device by another manufacturer. The display 18 of the wearableelectronic device 10E may include a touch screen version of the display18 (e.g., LCD, OLED display, active-matrix organic light emitting diode(AMOLED) display, and so forth), as well as the input structures 22,which may facilitate user interaction with a user interface of thewearable electronic device 10E.

In certain embodiments, as previously noted above, each embodiment(e.g., notebook computer 10A, handheld device 10B, handheld device 10C,computer 10D, and wearable electronic device 10E) of the electronicdevice 10 may include the transceiver 28. With the foregoing in mind,FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a radio frequency (RF) network provided viaa base station 52 communicating with a first electronic device 10F and asecond electronic device 10G (e.g., NR communications), where the secondelectronic device 120G may communicate using device-to-devicecommunications (e.g., UWB communications) with a third electronic device10H, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The electronicdevices 10 (e.g., electronic device 10F, electronic device 10G,electronic device 10H) may each have the transceiver 28 that includescircuitry for a receiver 54 and for a transmitter 56. In the illustratedembodiment, the electronic device 10F includes the receiver 54 and thetransmitter 56 in the transceiver 28. However, it is noted that anelectronic device 10 may include the receiver 54 and the transmitter 56as separate from the transceiver 28, and thus not include thetransceiver 28. Further, the various functional blocks shown in FIG. 7may include hardware elements (including circuitry), software elements(including computer code stored on a computer-readable medium) or acombination of both hardware and software elements. It should also benoted that FIG. 7 is merely one example of a particular implementationand is intended to illustrate the types of components that may bepresent. As such, functional blocks may be added or omitted, and theirarrangement within the RF network and/or the electronic devices 10 maybe modified. It is also noted that, although the depicted exampleincludes one base station 52 communicatively coupled to electronicdevice 10F, and the electronic device 10G communicatively coupled to theelectronic device 10H and/or the electronic device 10F, this is oneexample arrangement and other arrangements may be permissible. Forexample, in some embodiments, electronic device 10G and electronicdevice 10F may be a same electronic device 10 communicating with theelectronic device 10H and/or additional electronic devices 10 maycommunicate with the electronic device 10G using device-to-devicecommunications.

The electronic devices 10 may each include a cell phone (or other userequipment) that communicates with other electronic devices and/or aradio frequency (RF) network provider via the RF network. The electronicdevices 10 may communicate over the RF network using data packetstransmitted to and/or received from the base station 52. Each electronicdevice 10 may include a subscriber identification module (SIM) card thatenables registration to the RF network provider. For example,information stored on the SIM card may be used for encryption and/ordecryption operations of data packets transmitted between the basestation and a respective electronic device 10, where the base station 52may use a proprietary encryption or decryption method similar to otherbase stations of the RF network provider and used by the electronicdevice 10 via the SIM card. Each base station 52 may include anelectronic system or device (e.g., similar to electronic device 10), andthus may include memory 14, displays 18, processors 12, I/O interfaces24, network interfaces 26, transceivers 28, or the like (e.g., as shownin FIG. 1 ), for performing processing operations associated withmaintaining the RF network and for communicating with one or moreelectronic devices 10. Furthermore, the base station 52 may include oneor more systems that enable parallel operations. For example, the basestation 52 may include duplicated transceiver 28 systems to permitparallel operations (e.g., to enable communications from differentelectronic devices 10 to be received at least partially at the sametime)

The base station 52 may use different transmission frequencies orfrequency bands when exchanging data with the electronic devices 10 viathe RF network. Examples of the RF network may include Global System forMobile Communications (GSM) radio access networks (GRAN, GERAN),Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) radio access networks(UTRAN), and Long Term Evolution (LTE®) radio access networks (E-UTRAN),and New Radio (NR). In some cases, the base station 52 may receivepreferred transmission bands from the electronic device 10 and mayselect a transmission frequency or band from the preferred transmissionbands, which may include one or more frequencies as part of a frequencyrange. The electronic device 10 may, in turn, receive the transmissionfrequency or band from the base station 52 and use the transmissionfrequency or band in communicating with the radio access network. Insome cases, the electronic device 10 may receive a transmission bandfrom the base station 52 and select a transmission frequency from thetransmission band.

Electronic devices 10 may communicate with base stations 52 to receiveor transmit data (e.g., data packets, communications), such as dataassociated with receiving or transmitting a phone call, a text message,browsing the Internet, or the like. To do so, the receiver 54 of anelectronic device 10 may receive an input signal from the base station52 that may be processed and/or modified. The input signal may bewirelessly received via an antenna 58 operably connected to the receiver54. The input signal may include data transmitted via a carrierwaveform. The carrier waveform may be modulated to store the data, andthus data may be retrieved from the input signal for use by theelectronic device 10.

In some cases, the electronic device 10 may generate data fortransmission to the base station 52. The transmitter 56 may use similarbut reverse modulation and amplification operations as the receiver 54to transmit the generated data as an RF signal to the base station 52.

The receiver 54 and/or the transmitter 56 may include circuitry thatprocesses the input signal. The receiver 54 may include a low noisepower amplifier (LNA), an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a basebandfilter, or the like, to process the input signal. For example, a LNA mayreceive a relatively low-power signal from the antenna 58 and increaseits magnitude without significantly increasing noise of the inputsignal, generating a modified input signal. The receiver 54 maysometimes regulate power supplied to the LNA according to average powertracking of the modified input signal or envelope tracking of the inputsignal. Signals output from the LNA or other circuitry of the receiver54 may be transmitted to an ADC for additional processing. The ADC mayuse any suitable conversion method to convert the output into digitaldata usable by the electronic device 10. In some embodiments, a basebandfilter may receive an output from the ADC and perform additionalprocessing on the initial data recovered from the carrier waveform. Thetransmitter 56 may work in a similar but reverse fashion. For example,data to be transmitted to the base station 52 may be modulated onto acarrier signal, amplified for transmission to the base station 52, andreceived by the base station 52 for use.

Electronic devices 10 communicating with the base station 52 may usewireless RF signals transmitted at frequencies that fall within certainranges of frequencies, referred to herein as frequency bands. Somecommunications of the electronic devices 10 may transmit on a frequencyband that overlaps with another frequency band of another communication.For example, a first electronic device may communicate data according toa first communication type on a first band, and a second electronicdevice may communicate data according to a second communication type ofa second frequency band, where the first frequency band and the secondfrequency band at least partially overlap (e.g., at least partiallyinclude the same frequencies in the range of frequencies of thefrequency band). Since the frequency bands are at least partiallyoverlapping, communicating using the first electronic device mayinterfere with communicating using the second electronic device, and/orvice versa. A control system 60 of the base station 52 and/or controlsystems 62 of the electronic devices 10 (e.g., control system 62F,control system 62G, control system 62H) may control data transmissionoperations to reduce a likelihood that a data transmission sent orreceived on a second frequency band (e.g., UWB frequency band) isinterrupted by and/or missed due to communication sent or received on afirst frequency band (e.g., NR frequency band).

To help illustrate, FIG. 8 depicts multiple base stations 52 andmultiple electronic devices 10, including the electronic device 10F,communicating via an RF network according to a normal mode of operation(e.g., a non-muting operation, as will be appreciated herein withreference to FIGS. 10-24 ), according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. When in the normal mode of operation, the base stations 52and the electronic devices 10 may not communicate using at leastpartially overlapping frequency bands (e.g., the UWB frequencies).

The electronic devices 10 and/or the base stations 52 may communicateaccording to communication configurations that define periods of timeduring which types of communications are permitted to occur.Communication types may correspond to a type of originating applicationand/or service of the base station 52 and/or the electronic devices 10and/or may correspond to a type of network through which the data is tobe transmitted. For example, some electronic devices 10 may receive datafrom and/or transmit data to the base station 52 on a New Radio (NR)frequency band corresponding to RF network provider services (e.g., afirst type of communication). Furthermore, some electronic devices 10may transmit information generated by ultra-wideband services of theelectronic devices 10 on an ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency band (e.g., asecond type of communication). It is noted that for purposes of thisdisclosure, the NR frequency band may correspond to frequencies between7 gigahertz (GHz) and 25 GHz (e.g., less than 25 GHz, greater than 7GHz, between 7.125 GHz and 24.25 GHz) and/or the ultra-wideband (UWB)frequency band may correspond frequencies between 3 GHz and 11 GHz(e.g., between 3.1 GHz and 10.6 GHz, between 6.24 GHz and 8.736 GHz,between 3.55 GHz and 3.7 GHz). It should be understood that although theNR frequency band and the UWB frequency band are identified, anysuitable frequency bands used by the electronic devices 10 and/or thebase station 52 to communicate that also at least partially overlap maybenefit from use of the systems and methods described herein.

Keeping the foregoing in mind, the electronic device 10G may transmitdata to the electronic device 10F and/or the electronic device 10Hduring a duration of time indicated by the communication configurationto be a transmitting duration. While the electronic device 10G transmitsdata signals to another electronic device 10, the base station 52 maynot transmit data signals (e.g., a muting operation). Communicationconfigurations may indicate muting durations for the base station 52,and thus allocate a period of time for the electronic device 10F tocommunicate with the electronic device 10G. The cooperation enabled bythe electronic devices 10 and/or base stations 52 mutually operatingaccording to the communication configurations may reduce a likelihoodthat the data transmission from the electronic device 10G is interruptedby and/or missed due to a transmission by the base station 52 (e.g.,reduces to zero or a relatively lower likelihood).

To elaborate, FIG. 9 is an example communication cycle diagram thatvisualizes a communication configuration of the electronic devices 10,such as the electronic device 10F, the electronic device 10H, and/or theelectronic device 10G, for device-to-device communication, according toembodiments of the present disclosure. It should be noted that, for thepurposes of this disclosure, device-to-device communication indicatesdirect communication between electronic devices 10 (e.g., such that anintermediary device, such as the base station 52, is not used). Thecommunication configuration includes one or more transmission (TX)durations 70 and one or more receive (RX) durations 72. Idle durations74 may be programmed between the TX durations 70 and the RX durations72. The transmission and receiving operations of the electronic devices10 (e.g., electronic device 10F, electronic device 10G, electronicdevice 10H) may be performed independent of uplink and downlinkoperations of the base station 52. That is, the control system 60 mayoperate RF transmission circuitry of the base station 52 (e.g., atransmitter 56, a receiver 54) to send or receive data to or from one ormore of the electronic devices 10 during the idle durations 74.

In particular, the control system 62G may cause, for example, theelectronic device 10F to receive data from the electronic device 10Hduring a respective RX duration 72 and/or may cause the electronicdevice 10G to transmit data to the electronic device 10H during arespective TX duration 70. Likewise, the control system 62G may causethe electronic device 10G to receive data from the electronic device 10Hduring a respective RX duration 72 and/or may cause the electronicdevice 10G to transmit data to the electronic device 10H during arespective TX duration. It is noted that in some cases, the TX durations70 of the electronic device 10F may be offset in time from the RXdurations 72 of the electronic device 10G. This may permit atransmitting electronic device 10 (e.g., electronic device 10F,electronic device 10G, electronic device 10H communicating on the UWBfrequency band) to transmit data to a receiving electronic device 10.The electronic device 10F, the electronic device 10G, electronic device10H, the base station 52, and/or each other described electronic device10 and/or base station 52 may queue data to be transmitted via the RFnetwork, such that data to be transmitted is not lost as the electronicdevices 10 are transitioned in and out of the TX durations 70 and the RXdurations 72.

As described above, the electronic device 10F may communicate with thebase station 52 on a first frequency band (e.g., NR frequency band)while the electronic device 10F, the electronic device 10G, and/or theelectronic device 10H communicates on a second frequency band (e.g., UWBfrequency band). When the first frequency band does not overlap with thesecond frequency band, a likelihood of collision or interference due totransmissions to or from the base station 52 is negligible andcommunication performance is generally not impacted. However, when thefirst frequency band at least partially overlaps with the secondfrequency band, collisions may occur between data transmissions and/orcommunication interference may be present (e.g., a likelihood mayincrease of impacted wireless communications). For example, a powerlevel of the signals used for NR-type communications may be greater thanthat used for UWB-type communications, and thus at least partiallysimultaneous transmission of the NR-type communications may interferencewith some ongoing UWB communications. It is noted that in some cases,the power level of the UWB-type communications may be large enough tointerfere with at least partially simultaneous transmissions of NR-typecommunications.

The presently described systems, devices, and methods may address theseshortcomings and enable increased and more flexible usage of overlappingfrequency bands. In particular, as described herein, muting durationsmay be included within the communication configuration to reduce oreliminate collisions between transmissions on frequency bands that atleast partially overlap. That is, the control system 60 of the basestation 52 may adjust a muting configuration used to control when thebase station 52 and/or the electronic devices 10 pauses communicationson the first frequency band to permit communications on the secondfrequency band. For example, the muting configuration may include mutingdurations that define when the electronic device 10F is permitted totransmit data to the electronic device 10G and/or to the base station 52using the first frequency band (e.g., is permitted to transmitcommunications of a first type) and when the electronic device 10F ispermitted to transmit data to the electronic device 10G using the secondfrequency band (e.g., is permitted to transmit communications of asecond type). The use of the muting configuration that includes mutingdurations may be considered a time-domain masking mechanism that permitstemporary muting of uplink and downlink communications associated withthe base station 52 and transmitted on the first frequency band, therebytemporarily reducing amounts of interference (e.g., levels ofinterference) experienced by electronic devices 10 transmitting databetween each other on the second frequency band.

To help explain, FIG. 10 is an illustrative diagram of the multiple basestations 52 communicating with a subset of electronic devices 10operating according to a static communication configuration during amuting duration, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Thecommunication configuration may be referred to as “static” because theconfiguration may be fixed and not dynamically changed. The controlsystem 60 and/or the control systems 62 may reference the staticcommunication configuration when operating RF circuitry to permitcommunications between the electronic devices 10 and the base station52. FIG. 10 shows each base station 52 as muted during muting durationsof a communication configuration. Thus, each control system 60 of thebase stations 52 of FIG. 10 may operate in a muting mode of operationduring a muting duration, such that the base stations 52 do not send orreceive data.

When the control system 60 operates one of the base stations 52 in themuting mode of operation, such that communications of a first type(e.g., NR communications) are paused or otherwise stopped, interferencebetween communications of the first type and between communications of asecond type (e.g., UWB communications) may be reduced. Thus, a qualityof information transmitted between electronic devices 10 on the secondfrequency band (e.g., communications of the second type, UWBcommunications) may improve. It is noted that these system and methodsdescribed herein may also apply to electronic devices 10 that arenon-smartphone devices capable of communicating on the first frequencyband and/or the second frequency band (e.g., UWB-capable devices), suchas electronic device 10H. For example, the electronic device 10H mayinclude a keychain device, a vehicle sensor, a smart thermostat device,a printer device, a smart watch (e.g., electronic device 10E), or thelike. When the electronic device 10H is a keychain device, such as avehicle key fob, an operator of the electronic device 10H may useclose-range communications to authenticate with another electronicdevice 10, such as using a key fob for keyless car entry. When theelectronic device 10H is a smart thermostat device, a vehicle sensor, aprinter device, or the like, the electronic device 10H may communicatewith another electronic device 10 to transmit or receive sensed dataand/or to transmit or receive files for use (e.g., to print). These areeach examples of device-to-device communications that may use a UWBfrequency band. Thus, the systems and methods described herein mayimprove communications between two or more non-smartphone devices,between two or more smartphone devices (e.g., electronic device 10G,electronic device 10F), between one or more smartphone devices and oneor more non-smartphone devices, or the like, by reducing interferencethat affects the device-to-device communications.

FIG. 11 is an example communication cycle diagram depicting acommunication configuration, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 11 illustrates the muting durations 86 that cause thecontrol system 60 to operate the base station 52 in a muting mode ofoperation and/or that cause the control system 62 to operate theelectronic device 10 into the muting mode of operation. Thecommunication configuration includes time slots corresponding to mutingdurations 86, uplink durations 88, downlink durations 90, and specialdurations 92 (e.g., combined uplink duration and downlink duration)arranged in a periodic pattern used to manage communication exchangebetween the electronic devices and the base station 52. These time slotsare referred to herein as durations and may be interpreted a dataconstruct that indicates to the control system 60 and/or the controlsystem 62 which mode of operation to operate the base station 52 and/orthe electronic device 10 and for how long. In this way, each durationmay correspond to a different file header, title, indication,instruction, or the like, interpreted by the control system 60 and/orthe control system 62 as the mode of operation. The control system 60and/or the control system 62 may determine a subsequent or nextindicated duration while operating the base station 52 and/or theelectronic device 10 in a current indicated duration to prepare forupcoming operations. This determination is described with reference toat least FIGS. 12 and 13 herein.

The muting duration 86 may correspond to a time period (e.g., a durationof time) in which the base station 52 and/or the electronic device 10are operated to pause or stop communications of the first type (e.g.,base station-to-electronic device communications, NR-typecommunications) to permit a time period for transmission and/orreception of communications of the second type (e.g., device-to-devicecommunications, electronic device-to-electronic device communications,UWB-type communications). In this way, downlink operations and uplinkoperations may stop and/or may be paused during the muting duration 86.The uplink duration 88 may correspond to a time period used by thecontrol systems 62 to operate the electronic device 10 to transmitcommunications of the first type to the base station 52 and maycorrespond to a time period used by the control system 60 to operate thebase station 52 to receive the communications of the first typetransmitted from the electronic device 10. The downlink durations 90 maycorrespond a time period used by the control system 60 to operate thebase station 52 to transmit communications of the first type to theelectronic devices 10 and may correspond to a time period used by thecontrol systems 62 to operate the electronic device 10 to receive thecommunications of the first type transmitted from the base station 52.The special duration 92 may correspond to a time period used by thecontrol system 60 and/or the control systems 62 to transmit or receivecommunications to or from the control system 60 and/or the controlsystems 62.

The muting configuration may describe a periodic operatingcharacteristic of the muting mode of operation by including a definitionfor a muting repetition parameter (visualized relative to time atduration 94). The muting repetition parameter may define how often themuting durations 86 repeat in the communication configuration. Themuting repetition may be defined as to start at a starting edge of afirst muting duration (e.g., first muting allocation) and end at anending edge of a next muting duration (e.g., subsequent and secondmuting allocation). In some cases, the muting repetition may be definedat a starting or ending edge of a first muting duration and end at thesame of the next muting duration (i.e., a starting edge of a firstmuting duration paired with a starting edge of a second muting duration,ending edge of a first muting duration paired with an ending edge of asecond muting duration). The muting configuration may also include adefinition for a muting duration parameter (visualized relative to timeat duration 96). The muting duration parameter may correspond to adepicted width of the muting duration 86 and define a period of timeduring which the control system 60 and/or the control system 62 is tomute communications of the first type.

In this depicted case, each of the base stations 52 may receive themuting configuration from the RF network provider (e.g., from a corenetwork device managed and/or operated by the RF network provider)and/or may generate the muting configuration. FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 maycorrespond to a static muting configuration example, where each basestation 52 associated with an RF network receives a same mutingconfiguration that does not change over time. It is noted that FIG. 11illustrates how the muting durations 86 are constant durations of timeover time. In this way, the base stations 52 may receive a first staticmuting configuration and may transmit the static muting configuration tothe electronic devices 10 for implementation in communicationoperations.

The electronic devices 10 may receive the muting configurations from thenetwork as a configuration commonly broadcast to all users, such as thesystem information block (SIB) or another information element (IE) whichmay be transmitted to all user equipment communicating (e.g., camped) ona cell, and apply the muting configurations to respective controlsystems 62. The control system 62 may reference the broadcastconfiguration (e.g., the SIB) and the stored muting configuration whenoperating systems of the electronic device 10 to communicate. The SIBand/or the control system 62 may automatically convert the mutingconfiguration into a communication configuration.

In the cases where the electronic device 10 communicates on a restrictedbandwidth (e.g., some non-smartphone electronic devices 10), the SIB mayalso be restricted in bandwidth. To accommodate this, the electronicdevice 10 may receive a synchronization message characterized by atransmission parameter from the base station 52. The electronic device10 (more particularly, the control system 62) may adjust the transceiver28 based at least in part on the transmission parameter in response toreceiving the synchronization message. The transmission parameter mayindicate a center frequency and/or bandwidth. After the transceiver 28is calibrated based on the synchronization message, the electronicdevice 10 may receive the muting configuration. In some embodiments, thetransceiver 28 is tuned based on the transmission parameter, such astuned based on the bandwidth to select a center frequency determined tobe relatively better performing for a particular communication.

Turning now to describe operation of the electronic device 10G accordingto the muting configuration, FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating amethod 110 for operating the electronic device 10F to communicate withother electronic devices 10 (e.g., electronic device 10G, electronicdevice 10H, or the like) and/or the base station 52 according to amuting configuration, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In some embodiments, the method 110 may be implemented atleast in part by executing instructions stored in a tangible,non-transitory, computer-readable medium, such as the memory 14, usingprocessing circuitry, such as processors 12 (including one or morebaseband processors), or the like. As described herein, the method 110is described as being performed by the electronic device 10F. However,it is noted that any suitable electronic device 10, control system 62,or other suitable processing circuitry may perform the method 110. It isnoted that although depicted and/or described in a particular order,many operations described herein may be performed in any suitable order,and some operations may be skipped altogether. Furthermore, it is notedthat the control system 62F may perform at least a subset of theoperations of the method 110 on behalf of the electronic device 10F topermit the electronic device 10F to perform the method 110.

Keeping this in mind, at block 112, the electronic device 10F mayreceive a muting configuration from the base station 52. The basestation 52 may generate the muting configuration based on parametersreceived from an RF network provider, where the parameters may define amuting repetition parameter and a muting duration parameter. In somecases, the muting configuration may also include indications of arepetition pattern of downlink durations 90, a repetition pattern ofuplink durations 88, a repetition pattern of special durations 92, atotal length of time to use the muting configuration, or the like, tofurther define wireless communications over the RF network. Theelectronic devices 10 may receive the muting configuration from the basestation 52 via a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration operation,medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), physical layersignaling, or any combination thereof.

At block 114, the electronic device 10F may adjust its communicationconfiguration based at least in part on the muting configuration. Inthis way, the electronic device 10F may adjust its wirelesscommunication operations to be in accordance with the mutingconfiguration transmitted from the base station 52, and thus inaccordance with any standards communicated to the base station 52 by theRF network provider. As described above, the communication configurationmay be depicted in FIG. 11 , and thus define time periods during whichthe electronic device 10F may uplink data to the base station 52, timeperiods during which the electronic device 10F may downlink data fromthe base station 52, time periods during which the electronic device 10Fmay transmit data to the electronic device 10G, and/or time periodsduring which the electronic device 10F may receive data from theelectronic device 10G.

At block 116, the electronic device 10F may initiate communicationoperations based at least in part on the communication configuration.These communication operations may permit the electronic device 10F tocommunicate with the base station 52 and/or the electronic device 10G.Initiation of communication operations may include the electronic device10F powering-on and/or initializing RF circuitry (e.g., transmitter 56,receiver 54, transceiver 28). Initializing RF circuitry may includeperforming a calibration operation to prepare circuitry for use and/ormay include performing a tuning operation to identify gains to use orother transmission parameters to permit communication with nearby basestations 52 and/or electronic devices 10.

To distinguish between the time periods indicated by the communicationconfiguration, the electronic device 10F, at block 118, may analyze anindicated duration to determine which time period is upcoming. In thisway, the electronic device 10F may preemptively analyze thecommunication configuration to determine which time period is going tobe next. The electronic device 10F may analyze an indicated duration aperiod of time suitably early to provide enough time to prepare (e.g.,configure) the RF circuitry for the upcoming operation that correspondsto a configuration time of the RF circuitry. For example, during acurrent duration, the electronic device 10F may transmit data and theindicated duration (e.g., a next duration of the communicationconfiguration subsequent to the current duration that is ongoing) maydirect the electronic device 10F to receive data. Thus, the electronicdevice 10F may configure the receiver 54 in response to identifying theindicated duration as a receiving duration such that when the indicatedduration is the next current duration, the electronic device 10 isalready prepared to receive data.

As a result of the analysis, the electronic device 10F, at block 120,may determine whether the indicated duration is a muting duration 86. Afile header, a title, a designator, or the like, may be included in thecommunication configuration to indicate that a time period representedby the communication configuration corresponds to a muting duration 86.

When the electronic device 10F determines that the indicated durationdoes not correspond to a muting duration 86, the electronic device 10F,at block 122, may transmit or receive data (e.g., data packet, packet)associated with a first frequency band, such as a NR frequency bandand/or a NR service that generates data to be transmitted via the NRfrequency band. The electronic device 10F may transmit data when theindicated duration permits the electronic device 10F to uplink data tothe base station 52 and may receive data when the indicated durationpermits the electronic device 10F to downlink data from the base station52.

Returning to block 120, when the electronic device 10F determines thatthe indicated duration does correspond to a muting duration 86, theelectronic device 10F, at block 124, may transmit or receive data (e.g.,data packet, packet) associated with a second frequency band, such as anUWB frequency band and/or an UWB service that generates data to betransmitted via the UWB frequency band. Identification of the mutingduration 86 may cause the electronic device 10F to transmit data toand/or receive data from the other electronic devices 10 (e.g.,electronic device 10G, electronic device 10H) using the second frequencyband. While the muting duration 86 is ongoing, communications of thefirst type (e.g., communications on the first frequency band) may bestopped and/or paused to reduce an amount of interference affectingcommunications between electronic devices 10.

At block 126, the electronic device 10F may determine whether thecommunication configuration includes a next duration (e.g., an indicatedduration subsequent to the current indicated duration). When thecommunication configuration does not include a subsequent duration, atblock 128, the electronic device 10F may stop or pause wirelesscommunications with the electronic device 10G and/or the base station52. In some cases, however, the electronic device 10F will continue to,at block 118, determine a type of indicated duration for the nextduration, and then operate accordingly based on whether the electronicdevice 10F, at block 120, determines that the newly indicated durationcorresponds to a muting duration 86.

Operations of the electronic device 10F may complement operations of thebase station 52. FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating a method 140 foroperating the base station 52 to communicate with the electronic device10F according to a muting configuration, according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In some embodiments, the method 140 may beimplemented at least in part by executing instructions stored in atangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium, such as the memory14, using processing circuitry, such as processors 12 (including one ormore baseband processors), or the like. However, as described herein,the method 140 is described as being performed by the base station 52and it is noted that any suitable electronic device 10, control system60, or other suitable processing circuitry may perform the method 140.It is noted that although depicted and/or described in a particularorder, many operations described herein may be performed in any suitableorder, and some operations may be skipped altogether. It is noted thatthe control system 60 may perform at least a subset of the operations ofthe method 140 on behalf of the base station 52 to permit the basestation 52 to perform the method 140.

Keeping this in mind, at block 142, the base station 52 may generateand/or transmit a muting configuration to the electronic device 10F. Insome cases, the base station 52 may transmit the muting configuration tothe electronic device 10G and/or electronic device 10H involved indevice-to-device communications. It is noted that as described herein,the base station 52 may transmit or receive data from one or moreelectronic devices 10 registered to its RF network and/or its RF networkprovider. In this way, the base station 52 may perform the method 140 tomanage communication operations corresponding to each registeredelectronic device 10. However, for ease of discussion, the base station52 is discussed as performing the method 140 to communicate with theelectronic device 10F even though the method 140 is suitably applied topermit the base station 52 to communicate with other electronic devices10.

The base station 52 may generate the muting configuration based onparameters received from its RF network provider, where the parametersmay define a muting repetition parameter, a muting duration parameter.In some cases, the muting configuration may also include indications ofa repetition pattern of downlink durations 90, a repetition pattern ofuplink durations 88, a repetition pattern of special durations 92, atotal length of time to use the muting configuration, or the like, tofurther define wireless communications over the RF network.

At block 144, the base station 52 may adjust its communicationconfiguration based at least in part on the muting configuration. Inthis way, the base station 52 may adjust its wireless communicationoperations to be in accordance with the muting configuration. Asdescribed above, the communication configuration may be depicted in FIG.11 and thus define time periods during which, for example, theelectronic device 10F may uplink data to the base station 52, timeperiods during which the electronic device 10F may downlink data fromthe base station 52, time periods during which the electronic device 10Fmay transmit data to the electronic device 10G, and/or time periodsduring which the electronic device 10F may receive data from theelectronic device 10G, and the like.

At block 146, the base station 52 may initiate communication operationsbased at least in part on the communication configuration. Thesecommunication operations may permit the base station 52 to communicatewith other base stations 52 and electronic devices 10. Initiation ofcommunication operations may include the base station 52 powering-on orinitializing its RF circuitry (e.g., transmitter 56, receiver 54,transceiver 28). Initializing RF circuitry may include performing acalibration operation to prepare circuitry for use and/or may includeperforming a tuning operation to identify gains to use or othertransmission parameters to permit communication with nearby basestations 52 and/or electronic devices 10.

To distinguish between the time periods indicated by the communicationconfiguration, the base station 52, at block 148, may analyze anindicated duration. In this way, the base station 52 may preemptivelyanalyze the communication configuration to determine which operationmode to use next. The base station 52 may analyze an indicated durationa period of time suitably early to provide enough time to configure theRF circuitry for the upcoming operation. The period of time maycorrespond to at least an amount of time used to configure the RFcircuitry. For example, during a current duration, the base station 52may transmit data and may analyze the indicated duration (e.g., a nextindicated duration of the communication configuration subsequent to thecurrent duration that is ongoing) to determine that the communicationconfiguration is going to direct the base station 52 to receive datanext. Thus, the base station 52 may configure its receiver 54 inresponse to identifying the indicated duration as a receiving duration(e.g., the uplink duration 88). That way, when the indicated duration isthe new current duration, the base station 52 is already prepared touplink data from the electronic devices 10.

As a result of the analysis, the base station 52, at block 150, maydetermine whether the indicated duration is a muting duration 86. A fileheader, a title, a designator, or the like, may be included in thecommunication configuration to indicate that a time period representedby the communication configuration corresponds to a muting duration 86.

When the base station 52 determines that the indicated duration does notcorrespond to a muting duration 86, the electronic device 10F, at block152, may transmit or receive data (e.g., data packet, packet) associatedwith a first frequency band, such as a NR frequency band and/or a NRservice that generates data to be transmitted via the NR frequency band.The base station 52 may transmit data when the indicated durationpermits the base station 52 to downlink data to the electronic device10F and may receive data when the indicated duration permits the basestation 52 to uplink data from the electronic device 10F.

Returning to block 150, when the base station 52 determines that theindicated duration corresponds to a muting duration 86, the base station52 may, at block 154, stop and/or pause communications of the first type(e.g., communications to be transmitted on the first frequency band,NR-type communications). When the base station 52 pauses transmittingdata on the first frequency band, the electronic devices 10 maycommunicate data on the second frequency band, such as the UWB frequencyband and/or the UWB service that generates data to be transmitted viathe UWB frequency band. While the muting duration 86 is ongoing,communications of the first type may be stopped and/or paused to reducean amount of interference affecting communications between electronicdevices 10.

At block 156, the base station 52 may determine whether thecommunication configuration includes a next duration (e.g., an indicatedduration subsequent to the indicated duration and/or the currentduration). When the communication configuration does not include asubsequent duration, at block 158, the base station 52 may stop or pausewireless communications with one or more of the electronic devices 10.In some cases, however, base station 52 continues to, at block 148,determine a type of indicated duration for the next duration, and thenoperate accordingly based on whether the base station 52, at block 150,determines that the next indicated duration corresponds to a mutingduration 86.

In some embodiments, the base station 52 may adjust the mutingconfiguration over time, such that the muting configuration is not astatic muting configuration. For example, the base station 52 may beadjusted based on a traffic profile indicating an expected load (e.g., anumber of electronic devices 10 expected to be communicatively coupledto one or more base stations at future time), a traffic profileindicating a size of a current load (e.g., a number of electronicdevices 10 communicatively coupled to one or more base stations at acurrent time), a traffic profile indicating properties of a current load(e.g., characteristics of one or more electronic devices 10communicatively coupled to one or more base stations at a current time,average characteristics of one or more electronic devices 10communicatively coupled to one or more base stations at a current time),or the like. When adjusting the muting configuration overtime, the basestation 52 may use a muting configuration for a first subset ofelectronic devices 10 that is different from a muting configuration fora second subset of electronic devices 10. Furthermore, in some cases, acommon muting configuration is used in addition to subset-specificand/or device-specific muting configurations, where the common mutingconfiguration may be considered a default muting configuration. Thesesystems and methods are described herein with reference to FIGS. 15-24to clarify on these examples. It is noted that these examples describedbelow may be used additionally to or alternatively to the systems andmethods described above.

To help explain, FIG. 14 is an illustrative diagram of the multiple basestations 52 communicating with the multiple electronic devices 10,including the electronic device 10F, the electronic device 10G, theelectronic device 10H, and the base station 52, according to a dynamiccommunication configuration during a muting duration, according toembodiments of the present disclosure. The base stations 52 of FIG. 14may receive different muting configurations and/or may generatedifferent communication configurations based on receiving the samemuting configuration. In particular, the base stations 52 may generatethe different communication configurations using the same mutingconfiguration from the RF network and/or the RF network provider basedon different communication traffic profiles in respective geographicallocations of the base stations 52. Operating according to thesedynamically-generated muting configurations and/or dynamic communicationconfigurations may permit a subset of the base stations 52 to continueto communicate using the first frequency even while a second subset ofthe base stations are muted.

For example, the communication configuration of a base station 52A maycause the base station 52A to pause or mute communications on a firstfrequency band while the communication configuration of a base station52B may cause the base station 52B to continue communications on thefirst frequency band. When communication configurations and/or mutingconfigurations are dynamic, a subset of the base stations 52 (e.g.,subset including the base stations 52A) may be muted to reduceinterference of device-to-device communications on a second frequencyband at least partially overlapping the first frequency band, such ascommunications between electronic device 10F and the electronic device10G. The base station 52B may determine based on the traffic profilethat electronic device 10H and/or electronic device 10I are of suitabledistance from the base station 52B to not be affected or to benegligibly affected by the communications on the first frequency band.Since communications of the base station 52B do not affectdevice-to-device communications of the electronic device 10H and/orelectronic device 10I, the base station 52B may determine to not includemuting durations within its communication configuration.

The traffic profile may indicate an expected load, a size of a currentload, properties of a current load, expected properties of an expectedload, or the like. The traffic profile may be generated by the basestation 52 in response to signals and/nor communications received fromthe electronic devices 10. In some cases, the traffic profile may betransmitted to one or more of the base stations 52 from the RF networkand/or the RF network provider. In some cases, however, the electronicdevices 10 may transmit one or more traffic profiles to the basestations 52, such as traffic profiles indicating one or more propertiesof respective transceiver circuitry 28 of the electronic device 10 orindicating other suitable device assistance information indicative of aparameter associated with the receiver 54 and/or the transmitter 56.

The traffic profile may originate from a variety of sources. Forexample, a calendar application of the RF network provider and/or of arespective base station 52 may maintain a schedule of nearby eventsand/or public facilities to provide expected load informationcorresponding to upcoming events (e.g., events to be held at thephysical facility). In this way, a base station 52 located a thresholddistance from a football stadium may receive a traffic profileindicative of an expected load that corresponds to when a football gameis expected to end. The base station 52, aware that device-to-devicecommunications may increase after the football game ends, mayproactively (e.g., preemptively) generate a communication configurationthat increases or adjusts durations of the muting durations 86 toincrease an overall length of time allocated to device-to-devicecommunications (e.g., key fobs used to unlock car doors). Furthermore,the base station 52 may use a number of attendees indicated by thetraffic profile to determine by a length of time to extend the mutingdurations 86 and/or for how long to repeat use of the adjusted mutingdurations 86 (e.g., when attendees have left from the stadium there maybe no need to continue use of the adjusted muting durations 86 or mutingdurations 86 at all). In this way, the base station 52 may compare anumber of attendees to historical numbers of attendees, and how suitablea past adjustment was for the historical numbers of attendees, todetermine a suitable adjustment.

In some cases, the traffic profile may describe properties of theelectronic devices 10 communicatively coupled to the base station 52. Inthese cases, the traffic profile may describe whether one or moreelectronic devices 10 support communication on the second, overlappingfrequency band (e.g., UWB frequency band). Sometimes the traffic profilemay describe a number of electronic devices 10 expected to use servicescorresponding to the second frequency band and/or a number of electronicdevices 10 able to use the second frequency band.

The traffic profile may be generated at least in part by informationprovided by one or more of the electronic devices 10 as device (e.g.,user equipment (UE)) assistance information and received by the basestation 52. For example, the electronic device 10F may indicate apreferred frequency for the base station 52 to use when communicatingwith the electronic device 10F and/or a preferred frequency for otherelectronic devices 10 (e.g., electronic device 10G) to use whencommunicating with the electronic device 10F. For example, the preferredfrequency and/or set of frequencies may correspond to hardwareparameters of the electronic device 10F, such that the base station 52may change its operation to suitably communicate with the electronicdevice 10F. Thus, the base station 52 may consider this information aspart of the traffic profile and may subsequently adjust the mutingconfiguration with the preferred frequency in mind.

The electronic devices 10 may additionally or alternatively provideassistance information related to a number of attempts to access thesecond frequency band (e.g., second frequency spectrum) over a specifiedperiod and whether the attempts were successful (or unsuccessful). Thenumber of attempts and specified period may be used by the base station52 to determine a rate of successful (or unsuccessful) access by aparticular electronic device 10 (e.g., electronic device 10F, electronicdevice 10G) to the second frequency band. The period over which thisinformation (e.g., number of attempts) is aggregated may be configuredby the RF network via the base station 52. The base station 52 mayadjust the muting configuration based at least in part on the number ofattempts and/or the rate of successful (or unsuccessful) access.

In this way, based on overall statistics of frequency ranges requestedby the electronic devices 10, such as the range of frequencies requestedby the electronic devices 10 for UWB operation, and rates ofunsuccessful (or successful) access to the second frequency band (e.g.,UWB spectrum), the base station 52 may adjust the muting configurationperiodicity and duration. Thus, the base station 52 may use the trafficprofiles to optimize an allocation of resources for the muting ofcommunications on the first frequency band (e.g., NR muting), and thusoptimize a coexistence of the otherwise overlapping communications(e.g., permitting coexistence of NR communications and UWBcommunications).

To visualize the adjusted muting durations 86, FIGS. 15 and 16illustrate an adjustment to the muting duration 86. FIG. 15 is anexample communication cycle diagram depicting a communicationconfiguration that includes the muting durations 86, the uplinkdurations 88, the downlink durations 90, and the special durations 92arranged in a periodic pattern used to manage communication exchangebetween the electronic device 10F, the electronic device 10G, and thebase station 52, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.FIG. 15 may be similar to the communication cycle diagram of FIG. 11 ,and thus descriptions are relied on herein. FIG. 16 , however, is anexample communication cycle diagram depicting the communicationconfiguration of FIG. 15 that has been adjusted to include adjustedmuting durations 170, in addition to the muting duration 86, the uplinkdurations 88, the downlink durations 90, and the special durations 92,according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The adjusted mutingdurations 170 are a relatively longer time duration as to keepcommunications on the first frequency stopped and/or muted for a longerperiod of time relative to the muting duration 86.

To make the adjustment, the downlink duration 90A was removed from thecommunication configuration. The base station 52 donated the time periodcorresponding to the downlink duration 90A to the adjusted mutingduration 170A. Similarly, the base station 52 donated the time periodcorresponding to the downlink duration 90B to the adjusted mutingduration 170B. When time of a duration is donated, the originaltransition between durations (e.g., an operational transition betweenthe uplink duration 88 and the downlink duration 90) may be preserved.Preserving the original transition may enable the base station 52 toreturn to a periodicity of the communication configuration when aninclusion of muting durations 170 in the communication configuration isstopped. Returning to a periodicity of the communication configurationmay be relatively easier when time is donated from previously allocatedtime periods than when a time period of the muting duration 86 isadjusted without conserving a same end time of the time periodallocation (e.g., transitions indicated by arrow 172A and arrow 172B).

Turning now to FIG. 17 to describe operations of the base station 52 toconsider the traffic profiles when generating muting configurations,FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating a method 180 for operating the basestation 52 to communicate with the electronic device 10G and/or theelectronic device 10F, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In some embodiments, the method 180 may be implemented atleast in part by executing instructions stored in a tangible,non-transitory, computer-readable medium, such as the memory 14, usingprocessing circuitry, such as processors 12 (including one or morebaseband processors), or the like. However, as described herein, themethod 180 is described as being performed by the base station and it isnoted that any suitable electronic device 10, control system 60, orother suitable processing circuitry may perform the method 180. It isnoted that although depicted and/or described in a particular order,many operations described herein may be performed in any suitable order,and some operations may be skipped altogether. It is noted that thecontrol system 60 may perform at least a subset of the operations of themethod 180 on behalf of the base station 52 to cause the base station 52to perform the method 180.

At block 182, the base station 52 may generate and transmit a mutingconfiguration based on a first traffic profile. As discussed withreference to FIG. 14 , the traffic profile may indicate an expectedload, a size of a current load, properties of a current load, expectedproperties of an expected load, or the like. In this way, the basestation 52 may generate a first muting configuration based at least inpart on a first predicted or actual number and/or predicted or actualproperties of electronic devices 10 registered to the base station 52.

At block 184, the base station 52 may communicate with the electronicdevices 10. Each electronic device 10 may generate a respectivecommunication configuration based on the muting duration. The basestation 52 may generate its own respective communication configurationbased on the muting duration. The base station 52 may generally operateaccording to the method 140 of FIG. 13 to communicate with theelectronic devices 10 generally operating according to the method 110 ofFIG. 12 .

During communication using the communication configuration that wasgenerated based on the muting duration, the base station 52 may, atblock 186, receive a second traffic profile. As discussed with referenceto FIGS. 14-16 , the traffic profile may indicate a change in a size ofan expected load, a change in a size of a current load, a change inproperties of a current load, a change in properties of an expectedload, or the like.

At block 188, the base station 52 may determine that the second trafficprofile is different from the first traffic profile. The base station 52may compare the first traffic profile to the second traffic profile todetermine which parameters are different and may, at block 190, adjustthe muting configuration based on the changed parameters. The adjustmentto the muting configuration may compensate for a change in trafficand/or operation of the electronic devices 10 indicated by the secondtraffic profile relative to the first traffic profile. For example, thebase station 52 may increase a muting duration parameter and/or a mutingrepetition parameter in response to an indication that an increasednumber of electronic devices 10 are expected or are actively engaging indevice-to-device communications on the second frequency band (e.g.,increased amount of UWB communications). At block 192, the base station52 may transmit the adjusted muting configuration to the electronicdevices 10 for implementation. After receiving the adjusted mutingconfiguration, the electronic devices 10 may repeat performance of themethod 110 of FIG. 12 and/or the base station 52 may repeat performanceof the method 140 of FIG. 13 to apply the adjusted muting configuration.

The above-described dynamic configuration of muting durations 86 may beleveraged to further optimize coexistence of communications transmittedvia overlapping frequency bands and to further minimized interferencebetween device-to-device communications (e.g., UWB communications).FIGS. 18 and 19 depict a dynamic muting configuration that resulted inthe base station 52 applying an adjusted muting configuration to a firstsubset of electronic devices 10 without applying the adjusted mutingconfiguration to a second subset of electronic devices. FIG. 18 is anillustrative diagram of multiple base stations 52 (e.g., base station52A, base station 52B) communicating with multiple electronic devices 10(e.g., electronic device 10F, electronic device 10G) according to afirst communication configuration or a second communicationconfiguration at a first time before application of a device-specificmuting configuration at a second time, according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. For example, the base station 52A, the electronicdevice 10G, and the electronic device 10F may each operate according toa first muting configuration at a first time, while the base station52B, the electronic device 10H, and the electronic device 10J may eachoperate according to a second muting configuration at the first time.However, the base station 52A may determine to adjust its mutingconfiguration (e.g., in response to a second traffic profile).

For example, FIG. 19 is an illustrative diagram of a first subset ofbase stations 52 and electronic devices 10 (e.g., base station 52B,electronic device 10J, electronic device 10H) communicating according toa third communication configuration generated based on a device-specificmuting configuration applied at the second time while a second subset ofbase stations 52 and electronic devices 10 (e.g., base station 52A,electronic device 10F, electronic device 10G) continue to communicateaccording to the first communication configuration, according toembodiments of the present disclosure. For ease of discussion, FIG. 18(e.g., representative of a first time) is discussed in tandem to FIG. 19(e.g., representative of a second time after the first time). It isnoted that device-specific muting configurations may include mutingdurations specifically adjusted to be tailored to operation of one ormore electronic devices 10 without adjusting operation of one or moreother electronic devices 10. In this example, electronic device 10F andelectronic device 10G may be similarly situated in device type orgeographic location such that changes in load associated with one of theelectronic device 10F and/or electronic device 10G may apply to theother of the electronic device 10F and/or electronic device 10G.Similarly, changes in load associated with one of the electronic device10J and/or electronic device 10H may apply to the other of theelectronic device 10J and/or electronic device 10H without applying tothe electronic device 10F and/or electronic device 10G. In this way, achange may be made to the muting duration for the electronic device 10Jand/or electronic device 10H without necessarily making the same changeto a muting configuration for the electronic device 10F and/orelectronic device 10G, and thus may be considered device-specificchanges and/or localized changes.

Initially (e.g., before the first time), the base station 52A maydetermine to operate according to the first communication configuration(e.g., where device operation according to the first mutingconfiguration is visualized by symbol 200 and according to the secondmuting configuration is visualized by symbol 202). The base station 52Bmay determine to operate according to a communication configurationhaving the second muting configuration without the first mutingconfiguration.

After the first time and before the second time, the base station 52Bmay receive a second traffic profile determined, at block 188 of themethod 180 of FIG. 17 , to be a change from a first traffic profile. Inresponse to the change, the base station 52B may determine to adjust itsmuting configuration to a third muting configuration (e.g., where deviceoperation according to the third muting configuration is visualized inFIG. 19 by symbol 204). Thus, by the second time, the base station 52Bmay generate and apply the third muting configuration for use incommunications. Furthermore, by the second time, some of the electronicdevices 10 (e.g., electronic device 10J, electronic device 10H) may alsoupdate respective communication configurations as to comply with thethird muting configuration (e.g., represented in the change from thesymbol 202 to the symbol 204)

In some cases, the electronic device 10J and/or the electronic device10H may additionally or alternatively communicatively couple to the basestation 52A. In these cases, the base station 52A may receive the firsttraffic profile indicative of a traffic or device change affecting asubset of the electronic devices 10 without affecting another subset ofthe electronic devices 10. The base station 52A may use the thirdtraffic profile to generate the third muting configuration. The basestation 52A may communicate with the electronic device 10J and/or theelectronic device 10H using a communication configuration generatedusing the third muting configuration and the first muting configuration.In this way, the base station 52A, using a same communicationconfiguration inclusive of multiple muting configurations, maycommunicate with the electronic device 10F and/or electronic device 10Gaccording to the first muting configuration (e.g., represented by thesymbol 200) and may communicate with the electronic device 10J and/orelectronic device 10H according to the second muting configuration.

In this way, a communication configuration may be representative of oneor more muting configurations. Thus, the communication configuration maycoordinate operations of electronic devices 10 to be operated accordingto different muting configurations. For example, the electronic device10H may signal to the base station 52 before the second time that theelectronic device 10H wants a longer duration for device-to-devicecommunications, thus the base station 52 may generate and transmit anadjusted muting configuration to the electronic device 10H, therebyaccommodating the request of the electronic device 10H.

Localized muting operations, like shown in FIGS. 18 and 19 , may permitthe base stations 52 to configure different electronic devices 10 withdifferent muting configurations such that the device-to-devicecommunications occur at different times, thereby minimizing interferenceresulting from simultaneous device-to-device communications. The basestations 52 may use traffic profiles indicating properties of theelectronic devices 10 to trigger multiplexed muting configurations todecrease amounts of interferences. For example, the base station 52 mayselectively apply different muting configurations in regions of the RFnetwork affected by relatively high device density during time periodsthat correspond to relatively high usage of device-to-devicecommunications as a way to compensate for any interferences.

For the case when the electronic device 10H, the electronic device 10J,the electronic device 10F, and the electronic device 10G each correspondto muting configurations managed by the base station 52A, FIG. 20 is anexample communication cycle diagram of the first communicationconfiguration associated with the base station 52A at the first time,according to embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, thefirst communication configuration accommodates the first mutingconfiguration (e.g., represented in FIG. 18 by symbol 200) and thesecond muting configuration (e.g., represented in FIG. 18 by symbol202). In FIG. 20 , the first muting configuration may define mutingdurations 86A and the second muting configuration may define mutingdurations 86B. In this way, the base station 52A, the electronic device10H, the electronic device 10J, the electronic device 10F, and/or theelectronic device 10G may each operate to coordinate device-to-devicecommunications and communications with the base station 52A to reduceinterference between the first frequency band and the second frequencyband.

In some cases, the base station 52A may receive a changed trafficprofile (e.g., as described with respect to the method 180 of FIG. 17 ).For the case when the electronic device 10H, the electronic device 10J,the electronic device 10F, and the electronic device 10G each correspondto muting configurations managed by the base station 52A, FIG. 21 is anexample communication cycle diagram depicting the first communicationconfiguration associated with the base station 52A at the first time anda second communication configuration associated with the base station52B at a second time, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In this example, the first communication configurationaccommodates the first muting configuration (e.g., represented in FIG.18 by symbol 200) and the second muting configuration (e.g., representedin FIG. 18 by symbol 202). Furthermore, in this example, the secondcommunication configuration accommodates the first muting configuration(e.g., represented in FIG. 18 by symbol 200) and the third mutingconfiguration (e.g., represented in FIG. 19 by symbol 204).

In FIG. 21 , the first muting configuration may define muting durations86A, the second muting configuration may define muting durations 86B,and the third muting configuration may define muting durations 86C. Inthis way, the base station 52A, the electronic device 10H, theelectronic device 10J, the electronic device 10F, and/or the electronicdevice 10G may each operate to coordinate device-to-devicecommunications and communications with the base station 52A.Coordinating device-to-device communications may reduce interferencebetween the first frequency band and the second frequency band and/ormay be combined with adjusting or updating muting configurations inresponse to a change in a traffic profile (e.g., a change in the trafficprofile identified and compensated for before time 210 corresponding tothe second time depicted by FIG. 19 ). This may permit subsets ofelectronic devices 10 to operate according to independently definedmuting configurations.

To help explain, FIG. 22 is a flow chart illustrating a method 220 foroperating the base station 52 to generate a first muting configurationand a second muting configuration before the first time of FIG. 18 andto generate a third muting configuration before the second time of FIG.19 , according to embodiments of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the method 220 may be implemented at least in part byexecuting instructions stored in a tangible, non-transitory,computer-readable medium, such as the memory 14, using processingcircuitry, such as processors 12 (including one or more basebandprocessors), or the like. However, as described herein, the method 220is described as performed by the base station 52 and it is noted thatany suitable electronic device 10, control system 60, or other suitableprocessing circuitry may perform the method 220. It is noted thatalthough depicted and/or described in a particular order, manyoperations described herein may be performed in any suitable order, andsome operations may be skipped altogether. Furthermore, it is noted thatthe control system 60 may perform at least a subset of the operations ofthe method 220 on behalf of the base station 52 to permit the basestation 52 to perform the method 220.

Keeping this in mind, at block 222, the base station 52A may receive afirst traffic profile. The first traffic profile may indicate one ormore properties and/or one or more loads associated with the electronicdevice 10H, the electronic device 10J, the electronic device 10F, and/orthe electronic device 10G. At block 224, the base station 52A maygenerate a first muting configuration corresponding to the electronicdevice 10F and/or the electronic device 10G and generate a second mutingconfiguration corresponding to the electronic device 10H and/or theelectronic device 10J. The base station 52A may generate the firstmuting configuration and/or the second muting configuration based atleast in part on the first traffic profile received at block 222. Aftergeneration of the first muting configuration and/or the second mutingconfiguration, the base station 52A, at block 226, may transmit thefirst muting configuration to the electronic device 10F and/or theelectronic device 10G and/or transmit the second muting configuration tothe electronic device 10H and/or the electronic device 10J. Theelectronic device 10H, the electronic device 10J, the electronic device10F, and/or the electronic device 10G may each generate a respectivecommunication configuration in response to the muting configurationsthat implement the coordinated muting durations 86 into the respectiveoperations of the electronic devices 10.

At block 228, the base station 52A may receive a second traffic profileand determine that the second traffic profile is different from thefirst traffic profile received at block 222. In particular, the basestation 52A may determine that the second traffic profile is changed inproperties, load, traffic, or the like relative to the first trafficprofile. It is noted that when the second traffic profile is notdifferent from the first traffic profile, the base station 52A mayignore the second traffic profile and/or may not change mutingconfigurations in response to the second traffic profile.

At block 230, the base station 52A may use the second traffic profile todetermine that a localized change occurred to a subset of the electronicdevices 10 (e.g., electronic device 10H, electronic device 10J) and/ormay update the second muting configuration to a third mutingconfiguration. The base station 52A may generate the third mutingconfiguration based on the second traffic profile.

At block 232, the base station 52A may transmit the third mutingconfiguration to the subset of the electronic devices 10 associated withthe change in the second traffic profile (e.g., electronic device 10H,electronic device 10J). The base station 52A may not transmit the thirdmuting configuration to the subset of the electronic devices 10 notaffected by the change in the second traffic profile (e.g., electronicdevice 10F, electronic device 10G). When the subset of the electronicdevices 10 receive the third muting configuration, the subset ofelectronic devices 10 may update the communication configuration torepresent muting durations identified by the third muting configurationas opposed to the second muting configuration.

In some cases, the base station 52A may transmit a common mutingconfiguration to one or more electronic devices 10 (e.g., the electronicdevice 10H, the electronic device 10J, the electronic device 10F, theelectronic device 10G). FIG. 23 is an example communication cyclediagram depicting the first communication configuration thataccommodates the common muting configuration, according to embodimentsof the present disclosure. In this example, the first communicationconfiguration accommodates the first muting configuration (e.g.,represented in FIG. 18 by symbol 200), the second muting configuration(e.g., represented in FIG. 18 by symbol 202), and after time 210, thethird muting configuration (e.g., represented in FIG. 19 by symbol 204).Discussions relevant from FIG. 20 are relied upon in reference todiscussions of FIG. 23 for the sake of brevity.

For example, the base station 52A may generate a first mutingconfiguration corresponding to the electronic device 10F and/or theelectronic device 10G, may generate a second muting configurationcorresponding to the electronic device 10H and/or the electronic device10J, and/or may generate a common muting configuration for any otherelectronic devices 10 registered to the base station 52A. The commonmuting configuration may correspond to the muting duration 86D. The basestation 56A may update a common muting configuration in response toglobal traffic profiles. For example, a third party regulatory agencymay generate standards that the RF network provider uses to generate aglobal traffic profile. Global traffic profiles may also be generatedbased on cell topologies of some RF networks.

For example, an RF network may be divided into cells, where each cellmay correspond to one or more base stations 52. In cell-based RFnetworks, the base stations 52 may receive traffic profiles according toproperties and/or loads of the cell. Cell information may be received bythe base stations 52 additional to or alternative of traffic profilesindicative of electronic devices 10 communicatively coupled to the basestations. Information of the cell may correspond to globally-applicableinformation that may be used to adjust one or more muting configurationsmanaged by a respective base station 52. It is noted that although notparticularly called out in the discussions of FIG. 19 , cells aredepicted via the hexagon outlines present in the figure.

To help explain, FIG. 24 is a flow chart illustrating a method 246 foroperating the base station 52A to generate a first muting configurationbased on default traffic profile and/or default electronic deviceinformation before the first time of FIG. 18 , according to embodimentsof the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the method 246 may beimplemented at least in part by executing instructions stored in atangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium, such as the memory14, using processing circuitry, such as processors 12 (including one ormore baseband processors), or the like. However, as described herein,the method 246 is described as being performed by the base station 52Aand it is noted that any suitable electronic device 10, control system60, or other suitable processing circuitry may perform the method 246.It is noted that although depicted and/or described in a particularorder, many operations described herein may be performed in any suitableorder, and some operations may be skipped altogether. It is noted thatthe control system 60 may perform at least a subset of the operations ofthe method 246 on behalf of the base station 52A to permit the basestation 52A to perform the method 246.

Keeping this in mind, at block 248, the base station 52A may receive adefault traffic profile and/or default electronic device information.Reception of the default traffic profile and/or default electronicdevice information may correspond to powering-on of the base station52A. The default traffic profile and/or default electronic deviceinformation may correspond to standard operational expectations for theRF network as defined by the RF network provider. These standardoperational expectations may be provided with the understanding that theoperations are adjusted at a later time in response to actual operatingconditions and/or in response to expected operating conditions.

At block 250, the base station 52A may generate a common mutingconfiguration based at least in part on the default traffic profileand/or default electronic device information. The common mutingconfiguration may correspond to the muting durations 86D of FIG. 23 . Itis noted that in some cases, the default traffic profile and/or defaultelectronic device information may correspond to an ongoing operation ofthe RF network, and thus the common muting configuration may initializecommunication operations to the ongoing operation of the RF network. Thebase station 52A, at block 252, may transmit the common mutingconfiguration to the electronic devices 10, such as the electronicdevice 10J and/or the electronic device 10G. The base station 52A maytransmit the common muting configuration to each electronic device 10registered to its RF network.

At block 254, the base station 52A may receive a traffic profileindicative of an operation of the RF network and/or an expectedoperation of the RF network. The traffic profile may indicate that oneor more operations of the RF network changed since a deployment of thecommon muting configuration. At block 256, the base station 52A maygenerate a muting configuration based on the traffic profile. Generatingthe muting configuration based on the traffic profile may includeadjusting the common muting configuration to compensate communicationoperations for any changes and/or any current operations in the trafficprofile. When the muting configuration is generated, at block 528, thebase station 52A may transmit the muting configuration to one or moreelectronic devices 10 affected by properties and/or loads indicated bythe traffic profile. For example, the base station 52A may transmit themuting configuration to the electronic device 10J without transmittingto the electronic device 10G.

It is noted that in some cases the base station 52A may internallyassign respective muting configurations to respective electronic devices10 without transmitting the muting configuration. In this way, the basestation 52A may operate according to the respective muting configurationwhen communicating with the respective electronic device 10 withouttransmitting the muting configuration to the respective electronicdevice 10. For example, the base station 52A may know a periodicity ofUWB communications between electronic devices 10 and may operate,independent of operations of the electronic devices 10, to avoidtransmission of NR communications when UWB communications are expectedto occur by following a respectively assigned communicationconfiguration for one or more of the communicating electronic devices10.

In some cases, electronic devices 10 entering the RF network maintainedby the base station 52A and/or restricted-bandwidth electronic devices10 may use a receiver 54 that operates to perform downlink operationswithout performing uplink operations. This receiver 54 may download thecommon muting configuration and operate according to the common mutingdurations 86D, for example, using a generated communicationconfiguration that does not include uplink durations 88.

Technical effects of the present disclosure include systems and methodsfor temporarily muting uplink and/or downlink operations of a basestation to permit device-to-device communications to occur. In somecases, the uplink and downlink communications from the base station aretransmitted on a first frequency band that overlaps a second frequencyband used to transmit device-to-device communications. Operating thebase station and/or electronic devices in accordance with mutingconfigurations may improve communication operations since an amount ofinterference experienced when transmitting device-to-devicecommunications may be reduced when at least partially simultaneousuplink or downlink communications are paused.

The specific embodiments described above have been shown by way ofexample, and it should be understood that these embodiments may besusceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. It should befurther understood that the claims are not intended to be limited to theparticular forms disclosed, but rather to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope ofthis disclosure.

The techniques presented and claimed herein are referenced and appliedto material objects and concrete examples of a practical nature thatdemonstrably improve the present technical field and, as such, are notabstract, intangible or purely theoretical. Further, if any claimsappended to the end of this specification contain one or more elementsdesignated as “means for [perform]ing [a function] . . . ” or “step for[perform]ing [a function] . . . ”, it is intended that such elements areto be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f). However, for any claimscontaining elements designated in any other manner, it is intended thatsuch elements are not to be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f).

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device for wireless communicationcomprising: radio frequency communication circuitry configured tocommunicate with a base station according to a communicationconfiguration; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to theradio frequency communication circuitry and configured to operate theradio frequency communication circuitry to receive a first mutingconfiguration comprising an indication of a periodic pattern thatdefines when transmitting communications of a first type to the basestation are to be paused and when transmitting the communications of thefirst type to the base station are to be permitted, generate thecommunication configuration based at least in part on the first mutingconfiguration, and operate the radio frequency communication circuitryto transmit or receive a data packet according to the communicationconfiguration.
 2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein thecommunications of the first type correspond to communications between aservice of a radio frequency network and the one or more processors. 3.The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the first muting configurationcomprises muting durations having a different muting duration than apreviously used muting duration.
 4. The electronic device of claim 1,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: generatedevice assistance information, wherein the device assistance informationis indicative of a parameter associated with operation of the one ormore processors, the radio frequency communication circuitry, or both;operate the radio frequency communication circuitry to transmit thedevice assistance information to the base station; and operate the radiofrequency communication circuitry to receive a second mutingconfiguration generated based at least in part on the device assistanceinformation.
 5. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the one ormore processors are further configured to: operate the radio frequencycommunication circuitry to receive a second muting configurationgenerated based at least in part on a traffic load information from acore network device, wherein the traffic load information comprises aschedule of events or public facilities corresponding to upcoming eventsconfigured to indicate an expected demand; update the communicationconfiguration based at least in part on the second muting configuration;and operate the radio frequency communication circuitry to transmit orreceive the data packet using the radio frequency communicationcircuitry according to the communication configuration.
 6. Theelectronic device of claim 1, wherein the communications of the firsttype and the communications of a second type are transmitted or receivedon overlapping frequency bands.
 7. The electronic device of claim 6,wherein the communications of the second type correspond to a frequencyband comprising frequencies between 3 gigahertz (GHz) and 11 GHz.
 8. Theelectronic device of claim 6, wherein the first muting configurationindicates when the one or more processors are to use the radio frequencycommunication circuitry to communicate using the communications of thefirst type and when the one or more processors are to use the radiofrequency communication circuitry to communicate using thecommunications of the second type.
 9. The electronic device of claim 8,wherein the communications of the second type correspond to anultra-wideband service associated with the one or more processors. 10.The electronic device of claim 1, comprising a housing to enclose theone or more processors, the radio frequency communication circuitry,input devices, and a memory, wherein the one or more processors areconfigured to operate the radio frequency communication circuitry toreceive the first muting configuration via a radio resource control(RRC) reconfiguration operation, medium access control (MAC) controlelement (CE), physical layer signaling, or any combination thereof, andto store the first muting configuration in the memory.
 11. Theelectronic device of claim 1, wherein the communications of the firsttype correspond to a frequency band comprising frequencies between 7gigahertz (GHz) and 25 GHz.
 12. A method for wireless communicationsbetween a base station and user equipment, comprising: receiving, viaone or more processors, a first muting configuration from the basestation using a radio frequency network, the first muting configurationcomprising an indication of a periodic pattern that defines whentransmitting communications of a first type to the base station are tobe paused, when transmitting the communications of the first type to thebase station are to be permitted; generating, via the one or moreprocessors, a communication configuration based at least in part on thefirst muting configuration; and communicating a data packet according tothe communication configuration.
 13. The method of claim 12, comprising:determining, via the one or more processors, a current time; applying,via the one or more processors, the current time to the communicationconfiguration; and determining, via the one or more processors, totransmit or receive a communication of the first type in response toapplying the current time to the communication configuration, whereinthe communications of the first type correspond to a service of theradio frequency network, wherein the periodic pattern comprises anindication of when communications of a second type are to be paused, andwherein the communications of the second type correspond to one or moreultra-wideband services of an electronic device.
 14. The method of claim12, comprising: determining, via the one or more processors, a currenttime; applying, via the one or more processors, the current time to thecommunication configuration; and determining, via the one or moreprocessors, to transmit or receive a communication of the first type inresponse to applying the current time to the communicationconfiguration, wherein the communications of the first type correspondto a frequency band comprising frequencies between 7 gigahertz (GHz) and25 GHz, wherein the periodic pattern comprises an indication of whencommunications of a second type are to be paused, and wherein thecommunications of the second type correspond to a frequency bandcomprising frequencies between 3 GHz and 11 GHz.
 15. A base stationcomprising: a first transmitter configured to communicate with a firstreceiver of user equipment; and one or more processors configured togenerate a first muting configuration, the first muting configurationdefining when communications of a first type with the first receiver areto be paused, when the communications of the first type with the firstreceiver are to be permitted, when communications of a second type withthe first receiver are to be paused, and when the communications of thesecond type with the first receiver are to be permitted, operate thefirst transmitter to transmit the first muting configuration to thefirst receiver, generate a data packet configured as a communication ofthe first type, operate the first transmitter to transmit the datapacket to the first receiver when the first muting configurationindicates that the communications of the first type are permitted withthe first receiver, and operate a second receiver to receive a seconddata packet from a second transmitter when the first mutingconfiguration indicates that the communications of the first type arepermitted with the first receiver.
 16. The base station of claim 15,wherein the first transmitter is configured to communicate with a secondreceiver, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to:generate a second muting configuration, the second muting configurationdefining when the communications of the first type with the secondreceiver are to be paused, when the communications of the first typewith the second receiver are to be permitted, when the communications ofthe second type with the second receiver are to be paused, and when thecommunications of the second type with the second receiver are to bepermitted; operate the first transmitter to transmit the second mutingconfiguration to the second receiver, wherein the first mutingconfiguration is different from the second muting configuration; andoperate the first transmitter to transmit the data packet to the secondreceiver when the second muting configuration indicates that thecommunications of the first type are permitted with the second receiver.17. The base station of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors areconfigured to operate the first transmitter to transmit the data packeton a frequency band at least partially overlapping to a frequency bandused for the communications of the second type.
 18. The base station ofclaim 15, wherein the one or more processors are configured to: operatethe first transmitter to transmit a second muting configuration to thefirst receiver, wherein the second muting configuration comprisesdifferent durations relative to the first muting configuration used topermit or pause the communications of the first type and used to permitor pause the communications of the second type; and operate the firsttransmitter to transmit another data packet according to the secondmuting configuration after waiting a duration of time equal to an amountof time used by user equipment comprising the first receiver to update acommunication configuration based at least in part on the second mutingconfiguration.
 19. The base station of claim 15, wherein the one or moreprocessors are configured to: determine a transmission parametercorresponding to the first receiver; generate a synchronization messagecharacterized by the transmission parameter; operate the firsttransmitter to transmit the synchronization message to the firstreceiver; and operate the first transmitter to transmit the first mutingconfiguration after waiting a duration of time equal to an amount oftime used by user equipment comprising the first receiver to adjustradio frequency front end circuitry based at least in part on thetransmission parameter indicated by transmission of the synchronizationmessage.
 20. The base station of claim 15, comprising a second receiver,wherein the one or more processors are configured to: operate the secondreceiver to receive an indication of a second muting configuration froma core network device; generate the second muting configuration based atleast in part on the indication; and operate the first transmitter totransmit the second muting configuration to the first receiver, whereinthe second muting configuration comprises different durations relativeto the first muting configuration used to permit or pause thecommunications of the first type and used to permit or pause thecommunications of the second type.